12 Findings on Mind, Brain & Education

Mind, Brain, and Education is the first in a nine paper series from JFF called Students at the Center. Like all of JFF’s work, the series focuses on helping students from all backgrounds graduate ready for post secondary education and the 21st century knowledge economy.

Student-centered learning, according to JFF, provides “flexible learning experiences that enable students at various levels to build toward mastery of a common set of core skills. A commitment to addressing the individual needs and goals of each student is at the core of the model.

Students learning English as a second language are processing written information in somewhat different ways than native English speakers so standard reading instruction techniques may not be the right fit for their needs.

Mathematics is at least partially dissociable from other cognitive domains and abilities within the domain of mathematics can be dissociable from one another.

Education can support the development of emotional regulation skills, and this should be a priority as emotional regulation skills strongly predict academic achievement.

When students from disadvantaged backgrounds are in high-quality schools, their cortisol levels decrease throughout the day. The better the school, the more the cortisol levels decrease. Therefore, a quality learning environment can help students reach healthy cortisol levels, which lead to better emotional regulation and more favorable learning outcomes.

Environments that promote positive relationships and a sense of community promote learning.

Providing meaningful learning experiences with ongoing guidance can enable students at all levels to build toward mastery of a common set of skills.

This scientific evidence that emotion is fundamental to learning settles longstanding ideological debates concerning whether educators should be responsible for emotional development—if educators are responsible for intellectual development, they are inherently involved in emotional development as well.

Student-centered approaches to learning require students to be self-directed and responsible for their own learning, which requires executive functioning skills such as goal setting, planning, and monitoring progress.

Authors Christina Hinton, Kurt W. Fischer, Catherine Glennon made a solid contribution in this paper. A summary of what we know about how the brain works is the right place to start for a series on student-centered learning.

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Tom Vander Ark

Tom Vander Ark is founder and CEO of Getting Smart. He is also a partner in Learn Capital and a director of iNACOL, Digital Learning Institute, Imagination Foundation, Charter Board Partners, Strive for College, and Bloomboard.